


The Ghosts of You and Me

by Archangel67



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 2014!verse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-15
Updated: 2012-03-15
Packaged: 2017-11-01 23:56:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/362716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archangel67/pseuds/Archangel67
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean walks back into Castiel's life in 2014.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ghosts of You and Me

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Destiel Week 12 / Day 5/ Challenge word: Untoward

When he first walked in, Cas wondered if he was higher than he had previously suspected.

His current stash had been growing a little closer to the trash heap than he would have liked and given the sort of shit that soaked into the ground water in this place, it could have affected the plants. Tainted weed or not, though, he could _feel_ it. The man standing in his doorway had the beaten down yet still strangely hopeful nature that had made him so damn attractive in the first place.

Dean.

His Dean.

Not Fearless Leader.

He had been trying unsuccessfully for longer than he wanted to admit to stop caring about the man who used to be Dean Winchester. After he lost Sam, he simply wasn’t the same person. He seemed to survive on alcohol and stimulants, sleeping only when his body couldn’t take the stress any more. He had beaten how to be a hunter into Cas in more ways than one. The former angel had become little more than a punching bag for Fearless Leader’s frustrations.

So seeing the genuine article here in front of him drove the air from his lungs. All he could do was smile and turn away, inexplicably self-conscious that Dean was seeing him like this. Burnt out, washed out, faithless, and smelling like the inside of a bong.

He used to be something.

He used to matter.

It was an impossible situation. One that seemed tailored perfectly to break him. Forgetting completely about the girls who had just left, he just had to stop and stare. He used to think that the man was stubborn, difficult for the sake of being difficult, and ignorant of the reality of the world. Maybe Dean was ignorant, but it had made him soft.

Not _bad_ soft.

Not can’t throw a punch soft. Because God knew the man had an angry right hook that could knock anyone but an angel flat on their ass.

Just… innocent.

It was a strange thing to think about a man like Dean, but compared to who he had become, he was. Innocent. A good man. A righteous man. A man who cared about the safety and wellbeing of others more than he ever cared about himself. A man who taught him about freedom and emotion and that he had the right to choose his destiny.

A man who he had loved, against his better judgment.

Cas found himself wondering… Would telling Dean any of that have made a difference? Or would they have still ended up here, hating each other, using each other, working under the delusion that the other could have done something to save the world just one more time?

No. Probably not.

He laughed.


End file.
